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MEMORIAL 



JAMES S. WADSWORTH. 



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MEMORIAL 



OV THE LATE 



GEN. JAMES S. WADSWORTH, 



DELIVERED BEFORE THE 



Ueu) H\ov\i Mutt gigrmiUural ^ufiiJty, 



AT THE CLOSE OF ITS 



ANNUAL EXHIBITION AT ROCHESTER, 



SEPTEMBER 23d, 1864, 



By lewis F. ALLEN. 



OF BUFFALO, (eX-PREBIUKNT OF THE SOCIETY.) 







ALBANY : 

VAN BENTHUYSEN'S STEAM PRINTIJSTG- HOUSE. 



1865. 



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MEMORIAL. 



Mr. Presidext, Okkickrs axd Gentlemen 

OF THE New York State AGRicri.TrRAL Society : 

When good and great men die, it is the impulse 
of generous hearts, in unavailing regrets for their 
loss, to pay a fitting tribute to their private worth 
and public services. From time immemorial, 
States, communities and societies with which 
they have been connected, or to which they had 
rendered eminent benefits, have borne prompt and 
honorable testimony to their virtues and actions, 
not only as the expression of gratitude and resj)ect 
to their memories, but to inspire posterity as well 
as their cotemporaries with an admiration of good 
deeds and beneficent labors. All worthy societies 
and associations have had inscribed on their 
member-rolls names of distinguished men and 
benefactors — and this Society, although humble 
in its pretensions, unambitious of worldly renown, 
and cultivating only the arts of peaceful life, may 
claim, not boastfully, but with heartfelt satisfac- 



tion, names most honorable in their eiforts for 
human welfare, and deeply lamented in their too 
early departure from the field of their labors. 

At a meeting of the Executive Committee of 
your Society in May last it was ''Resolved, That a 
memorial of the late James S. Wadswortii, of his 
connections with this Society, with the agriculture 
of his county, and of the State, and his devotion 
to his country, be prepared and read before the 
Society at its annual exhibition in September 
next at Rochester." 

In obedience to that resolution I come before 
you to speak of that lamented man, late a Presi- 
dent of this Society. This rich and populous 
Valley of the Genesee was his honie, and in and 
around it was the principal theatre of his action. 
His name was almost a household world throughout 
Western New York, and he was loved and honored 
by all who knew him. This is the place to sjjeak 
of him, and of his connection with the agricultural 
interests of his county, of his vicinity, and of the 
State — of his labors in their behalf, and his influ- 
ence on their welfjire. Most gladly, yet respect- 
fully, would I have preferred that this task should 
be discharged by one who more intimately knew, 
and better appreciated the life of this excellent 



man, than myself; but the ckitj placed upon me 
by the committee seemed imperative, and I 
responded to their command with great diffidence 
in my ability to do justice to the occasion. You 
will pardon what may, perhaps, seem a digression 
from the immediate subject of this memorial, but 
the scope of the "resolution" demands a more 
discursive notice of the agricultural events and 
progress of this vicinity than what have passed 
under our own immediate observation. 

Seventy-four years ago, the spot on which we 
stand — this opulent and thriving city, ringing 
with the sounds of human industry — this broad 
and magnificent valley, reaching from the lake, 
almost Avithin our sight, to the distant hills on 
the southern border of our State, was a wild, 
unbroken wilderness. The victorious army of 
General Sullivan, under the direction of our 
recently formed National Government, had just 
driven the predatory Indian bands from their 
forays on the border settlements of the Chemung, 
and Tioga, to their distant forest homes, and they 
gladly consented to bury their enmities, and live 
in peaceful intercourse with our people. The 
broad and fertile lands of Western New York had 
been purchased by various individuals and com- 



6 

panies, both in the Eastern States and Europe, 
and were about to be laid open for settlement. In 
the year 1700 two young men, entrusted with 
agencies for the disposition of large tracts of these 
lands, left their homes in Connecticut, and after 
a journey of several weeks through formidable 
difficulties, a portion of the Avay clearing their 
forest road with axes, they gained the banks of 
the Genesee at Big Tree, thirty miles south of 
what is now Rochester. The name of these two 
young men was Wadsworth. William, six years 
the elder, was a man of bold, determined tempe- 
rament, vigorous, indomitable will, skilled in the 
stern and rugged arts of life, possessing the power 
to reduce the forest to culture, and imbued withal, 
with a military spirit, eminently fitting him as a 
pioneer in the great work which invited him to 
its achievement. James, the younger, was of a 
milder quality. He had been liberally educated. 
His mind, penetrating and expansive, had been 
highly cultivated, and his habits trained to busi- 
ness. System, order, and perseverance, were the 
rules of his action. Thus, with the extraordinary 
opportunities laid out before the brothers, success 
was sure to follow their undertakings. 



In the discharge of their agencies they divided 
and sold extensive tracts of land, and invited a 
multitude of settlers into the Genesee Valley, and 
throughout its immediate borders. Industrious and 
thriving communities grew up, and teeming fields 
with bounteous harvests opened and ripened all 
around them. Possessing the love of domain, inhe- 
rent in their English ancestry, the Wadsworths, 
as they progressed, invested their earnings in 
choice tracts of the rich valley, until their acres 
were counted by thousands, and in process of 
years "the Wadsworth farms" became famous, 
not only in the country round about, but in the 
old settlements of Eastern New York and New 
England. William was the out-door man and 
farmer ; the forests fell, and the fields were cleared 
under his sturdy perseverance : while James was 
the office-man and financier ; and it was mainly 
his fine rural taste and wise forecast, aided by the 
vigorous thought and industry of his brother, 
which gave outline to their estates and system to 
their agriculture. Great herds of cattle fattened 
in their meadows ; numerous flocks of sheep 
ranged their pastures ; and over their wide uplands 
the richest wheat ripened for the sickle and the 
reaper. Even in those early years they sought 



inqjroved breeds of horses, cattle, sheep and swine, 
and introduced them to their farms, and by their 
example gave tone and impulse to a style of hus- 
bandry among the farmers around them, which 
has been continued to the present day. 

Time Avore on. The pioneers of the Genesee 
country, one after another, were gathered to their 
fathers, and William Wadsworth, a bachelor, in 
the year 1833, at the age of seventy-one years, 
bearing an honorable record as a general officer in 
the militia of his county, at the memorable battle 
of Queenstown, on the Niagara frontier, in the war 
of 1812, and of a life marked by useful labors at 
home, went down to his grave, bequeathing his 
share of the Wadsworth estates to his brother and 
his children. 

James Wadsworth had married at middle age, 
and established his family home on the spot of his 
first settlement, then become a neat and thriving 
village, called Geneseo. Here were born and 
reared his children, two sons and three^daughters, 
not one of whom is now living. Thriving in his 
fortunes, cultivated in his tastes, and accomplished 
with the advantages of foreign travel during some 
years' residence in Europe, where the business of 
his agencies had early called him, he became 



9 

widely known for his genial hospitality, his digni- 
fied manners, and his elevated intercourse with 
society. Few country gentlemen in the United 
States — none, certainly, in the State of New York 
— through their wide business correspondence 
abroad and at home, were better or more favorably 
known. His plans of improvement were broad, 
comprehensive and thoroughly practical. Much 
of the grand beaut}^ and park-like scenery of the 
Genesee Valley owe their effect to his refined 
taste and aesthetic judgment. He patronized edu- 
cation by donations for the improvement of our 
common school system, and gave liberally for 
school and town libraries in his county. He main- 
tained the systematic plans of agricultural routine 
adopted by his brother and himself at an early 
day, and as circumstances required, improved 
them. After a life of temperance, frugality and 
usefulness, in the year 1844, at the age of seventy- 
six years, he died, leaving his family, probably, 
the finest agricultural estate in the country. 

A historical allusion to the Wadsworths', and 
their farms, forty-five years ago, may contrast 
that early day in the Genesee Valley with the 
present. I find the narrative given in a letter 
from the late celebrated Dr. Thomas Cooper, then 
2 



10 

of Pennsylvania, dated May 21, 1809, while on a 
tour throngh Western New York. It was published 
in The Port Folio in tlie year 1810. He is descri- 
bing the Home Farm of the W.adsworths : 

" Col. W. Wadsworth, who is unmarried, lives 
with his brother, Mr. James Wadswortii. The par- 
ticulars of this noble farm are briefly as follows : 
The house (a double house of five windows in 
front, with good-sized rooms) is placed on an emi- 
nence at the farther end of the village of Cheneseo, 
which contains about a dozen houses. There is a 
gentle descent of cleared land in front of the house 
for about three-quarters of a mile, to the edge of 
the flats. The flats are a mile and a (juarter across. 
Of these, full in view from the windows of the 
house. Col. Wadsworth and his brother own 1700 
acres, all cleared and laid down in timothy and 
clover. Besides these 1700 acres of flats, they have 
three or four hundred acres of cleared upland in 
front and around the house. Their present stock 
is twelve hundred sheep, with between six and 
seven hundred lambs ; of these lambs sixty-eight 
are half-blood Merinoes, and two hundred half- 
bred Bakewell's. They purchased a full-blooded 
Merino ram from Chancellor Livingston, out of 
the (French) Emperor's flock at Rambouillet. 



11 

Messrs. Wads worth <also keep on the same farm 
two hundred mules. The mules they import young 
from Connecticut, improve them here, and send 
them, when full grown, to the Southern States, 
where they fetch from sixty to one hundred and 
twenty dollars apiece. They have also a stud of 
forty horses. On this tract they have three dairies, 
let out on shares. They furnish each tenant with a 
house and buildings, and with forty cows. The ten- 
ant takes care of the buildings, cuts the grass for 
hay, and retains half the butter and cheese. On a 
farm farther down the river they have about two 
hundred and thirty head of horned cattle. They 
complain of want of capital to stock the land fully. 

" Mr. James Wads worth has arranged a very 
well-chosen library of about six hundred volumes 
of the best modern books ; doubtless the best room 
in this neat and Avell-furnished house. The estab- 
lishment in all its parts seems to give a full and 
favorable picture of that truly respectable char- 
acter, an active, intelligent, industrious gentleman 
farmer. 

" They fiava no land oj their oiun on the flats foj' sale. 
What they possess the family mean to retain.'''' 

James Samuel Wadsworth, whose recent sudden 
and melancholy death we now mourn, was the 



12 

eldest son of James Wadsworth, and born in the 
town of Geneseo, in the county of Livingston, in 
the year 1807. Endowed with a robust physical 
constitution, coupled with a bright and vigorous 
intellect, he was educated, not in the pent-up 
schools of a crowded city, but as all country boys 
should be, in the best schools of a country village. 
His collegiate course was completed at Harvard 
University. He afterwards acquired the profession 
of the law, partially in the office of Daniel Web- 
ster, in Boston, and finished his course of law 
reading in Albany. Born to the inheritance of 
great wealth, accomplished in education, profes- 
sional knowledge, and the advantages of elevated 
society, on arriving at his majority the most flat- 
tering allurements to personal ambition, to luxury, 
and worldly enjojanent, so dazzling to the imagi- 
nation of a spirited young man, were spread before 
him. But young Wadsworth was both thoughtful 
and considerate. Though loving, and reasonably 
indulging in the pleasures of society, he calmly 
surveyed his position at the outset of what might 
become an important life. His uncle William, the 
out-door manager of the landed property of the 
family, was in the sere and yellow leaf of declining 
age. His father, bowed with forty years of toil 



13 

and resj)onsibility, had looked hopefully to a time 
of repose, and James, with a manly resolution, and 
thorough appreciation of his duty, threw aside the 
blandishments of fortune, turned his attention to 
business, and gradually assumed the chief super- 
vision of the fjimily estates. In the year 1833, at 
the age of twenty-six, Mr. Wadsavorth married 
the daughter of John Wharton, Esq., of Philadel- 
phia, a lad}^ of great personal worth, and a con- 
nection every way eligible to their mutual hap23i- 
ness. He established his family home at Geneseo, 
and erected his dwelling with attachments and 
surroundings comporting to his condition of estate, 
and range of life and occupation. There in the 
midst of congenial society, and the interchange of 
those amenities which flow in the familiar inter- 
course of friends and neighbors, he lived, and 
labored, and dispensed a widely participated hos- 
pitality. Of his family, Mrs. Wadsvvorth, and six 
children — three sons and three daughters survive 
him. 

Probably no agricultural property in the coun- 
try, so extensive in domain, had been arranged 
into a better division of individual fiirms, and 
their husbandry directed with more systematic 
economy on the part of the landlords, than those 



14 

of the Waclsworths. The soils were applied to 
those crops most congenial to their natures, and 
which yielded the most profit on their outlay ; 
and as proof that the mutual interests of landlord 
and tenant were thoroughly studied, I understand 
that quite three-fourths in number of the tenants 
now on the farms are those, and the descendants 
of those, who occupied them in the lifetime of 
the elder Wadsworths. 

In noticing the management of an overshadow- 
ing agricultural estate like this, a remark might 
be expected upon the tendency of such extraor- 
dinary holdings, and their influence upon the 
welfare of those wdio rely on them for support. 
Such discussion is hardly germane to this occa- 
sion ; yet I frankly admit, that the system of 
aggregating land in large bodies by individual 
proprietors, and holding it under a tenant culti- 
vation, has not generally proved favorable to the 
highest prosperity of the communities connected 
with them. The system is scarcely in accordance 
with the spirit of our Republican institutions. In 
this instance, however, it is a gratifying fact that 
the moral and pecuniary condition of the inhabi- 
tants dwelling on the Wadsworth farms is as high, 
and the line of husbandry has been as good, in 



15 

the average, as among the smaller farmers who 
hold their lauds in fee — and the general agricul- 
ture of Livingston county is of no mean order. 
Nor can any sensible man throw merited censure 
upon the conduct of the elder Wadsworths in thus 
amassing, and holding with tenacious grip, such a 
noble domain. In the vigor of their young man- 
hood they went into a wild country, and grappled 
with all the hardships and diseases incident to a 
reduction of the broad wilderness to life and civi- 
lization. Improving their fortunate advantage, 
they won their possessions fairl}'. God had made 
the land beautiful in its undulating surface, and 
blessed it with surpassing fertility. Magnificent 
landscapes of wood, and meadow, and swelling 
upland; of crj^stal lakes, and leaping streams, and 
flowing river stretched far and wide around them 
a land most goodly to behold ; and with ready eye 
and sagacious plan they saw, possessed, and 
enjoyed it. And they used it well. 

In the year 1841, by an act of our Legislature, 
the State Agricultural Society was reorganized. 
Through an aj^propriation from the State treasury 
its funds were augmented, and an exhibition of 
farm products and mechanical implements was 
ventured. Under the new administration of its 



16 

affairs, the first exhibition was held at Syracuse, 
in September of that year, and with such degree 
of success that its annual repetition was demanded. 
In January, 1842, James S. Wadsworth, of Gene- 
seo, was unanimously elected president of the 
Society. For several years he had pursued the 
business of a farmer on his own account, as well 
as supervised the chief agricultural affairs of his 
father's estate, and in his own vicinity was known 
and esteemed as a thrifty, intelligent husbandman. 
It was fit and proper that such an one as he should 
receive the honor and take the responsibility of 
the office. The Society, although successful, so 
far as its imperfect organization in a new field of 
exertion had proved, was yet to be further syste- 
matized and put in working order. With charac- 
teristic energy, Mr. Wadsworth entered upon the 
discharge of his duties, and the good conduct and 
well-doing of the Society enlisted his heartiest 
attention. He became, at the same time with his 
father and brother, a life member, and, with the 
aid of his spirited associates in office, placed it on 
a sure basis of success. The next exhibition w^as 
at Albany, and a most gratifying display of impro- 
ved husbandry, household art, and mechanical 
skill was offered to the congregrated and expectant 



17 

friends of our agricultural advancement. The 
degree of tact, aptitude and readiness in the dis- 
charge of his duties evinced by the young presi- 
dent, determined the Society to re-elect him, and 
appoint the exhibition for the year 1843 in the 
city of Rochester, the vicinity of his home, where 
his attention could be readily given to its prepa- 
ration. And most amply was that preparation 
made. His personal services and ready purse 
were both yielded for the occasion. The Genesee 
Valley poured forth the choicest of its agricultu- 
ral abundance, and the skill and handicraft of the 
young and active city joined in their rival dis- 
play, while the more distant country, east and 
west, met each other with their mutual ofFerino-s. 
This, the third exhibition of the Society, larger 
in material and more numerous in attendance 
than either of the two which preceded it, was 
but the growth of well directed effort on the part 
of its managers and the increasing spirit of the 
people. The career of the Society was no longer 
a probation; and, assured of its success, Mr. Wads- 
worth, at the close of his official term, with well 
won honors, gracefully retired to give room to 
his successor. 



18 

The death of his fjither during the succeeding 
year threw the management of three-fourths of 
the Wads worth estates — that j^ortion belonging 
to himself and sisters — upon James, the other 
fourth being owned and managed by his younger 
brother, William. Not only the lands in the 
Genesee Valley, but other extensive real and 
personal properties had come to his charge, and 
he addressed himself to their care with an indus- 
try, an ability, and a knowledge of their multifa- 
rious interests quite equal to the necessity. He 
maintained the system of management which 
had been long adopted, and had only to extend it 
over such routine and details as became necessary 
by changes or aggregations incident to such ex- 
tended affairs. He continued his labors both in 
the councils and at the annual exhibitions of the 
Society, and for many years his flirm stock formed 
a prominent feature in the prize lists. On all 
occasions he evinced the liveliest interest in its 
welfare ; and, as soon as he had a son old enough — 
and his second one he trained to be a farmer — the 
stripling appeared among us with his fatted bul- 
locks, and blooded horses, in honest competition 
with the hardest-handed farmer in the show 
grounds. 



19 

Nor were the agricultural efforts of Mr. Wads- 
worth confined to the State Society. He took an 
active interest in his own County Association, 
and vigorously assisted its efforts in imj)roving 
the husbandry of his vicinity. He imported from 
abroad choice breeds of farm stock, and in various 
manner promoted the welfare of the farmers of 
Livingston by his own example, as well as by 
his aid in the encouragement of new and econo- 
mical inventions in labor-saving implements. His 
influence, always active, was persistent and bene- 
ficial throughout. 

More intimate with the varied interests which 
build up the prosperity of the community outside 
of agriculture than the elder Wadsworths had 
been, James became engaged in several of the 
active enterprises with which the business men 
of Western New York were identified. He em- 
barked a share of his capital in them, and gave 
to these different investments a portion of his 
attention. Nor in these was he merely a fair- 
weather adventurer. In important enterprises 
with others, he took risks, and heavy ones when 
his judgment approved, shirking no responsibili- 
ties upon those less able to bear them, but breasted 
such emersfencies as in the hazards of business 



20 

might arise, and hy the further aid of his capital 
or credit, when necessary, brought to a successful 
issue their undertakings. He Avas emphatically 
a man of the times — a part and parcel of the en- 
tire community in what concerned their material 
welfare, and no man among them all was more 
alive to the prosperity of the people, aside from 
purely selfish motives, than himself Enjoying 
the well earned returns of intelligent enterprise, 
and improving, by a liberal participation Avith 
others, the fortunes of himself and his family, his 
action redounded largely to the public good. 

An incident may here be related testifying to 
the esteem and affection in which Mr. Wadsworth 
was held in the community where he lived, and 
was best known. In December, 1851, business 
having called him to Europe, he took passage in 
the steamship Atlantic on his homeward voA'age. 
The vessel did not arrive in New York at the 
expected time. Some days afterward a report 
came that she had met with an accident at se^i 
which might prove fatal to her safety, and so 
long was further intelligence delayed, that by 
many the ship Avas given up for lost. It Avas 
known that he Avas on board, and during tAventy- 
eight days of weary susj)ense, thousands of sub- 



21 

dued voices and anxious hearts outside the a";o- 
nized circle of his own fireside, testified their 
sorrow at his jDrobable fate. His loss would have 
been felt as a public calamity. But a joyous day 
ere long shone out on both kindred and friends. 
Intelligence of his arrival in New York was 
speeded over the wires, and a day or two later he 
was welcomed to his home in Geneseo by the 
sound of bells and the congratulations of his 
assembled friends and neighbors. 

In public affairs the opinion and action of Mr. 
Wadsworth were decided. He took a lively inte- 
rest in the leading questions of the day — not the 
lower issues affecting mere party politics — but 
questions involving grave principles, and policies 
worthy the attention of statesmen and philan- 
thropists, in which his views were thoroughly 
defined, and inflexibly determined. Had he 
sought civil promotion, it was always ojDcn to his 
acceptance ; but the tranquil paths of private life 
were more congenial to his tastes and feelings. 

But a new and untried field of action was sud- 
denly destined to open before him. Early in the 
year 1861 the atrocious rebellion in the Slave 
States of the Union against the general govern- 
ment, found him at his temporary residence in 



22 

the city of New York. The President of the 
United States had called for troops to defend the 
seat of government from sjDoliation, and possible 
capture at the hands of the rebels. The national 
treasury robbed; the navy sent abroad and scat- 
tered in distant seas; the army — what there was 
of it — dispersed along our wide-spread frontier, 
and the material of defence squandered or carried 
away by the parricidal hands of a recently ex- 
pired administration who had sworn in all solem- 
nity to support the Constitution of their country ; 
in this hour of its extremity, Mr. Wadsworth, in 
the impulsive patriotism of his nature, rushed to 
that country's rescue. With his own purse and 
credit he furnished a vessel with a cargo of army 
supj)lies, went with it to Annapolis, and gave his 
personal attention to its distribution among the 
troops which had been hastily called to protect 
the city of Washington. This assistance on the 
part of Mr, Wadsworth, so timely rendered in 
the impoverished condition of the public trea- 
sury, although afterwards repaid to him, was 
none the less creditable to both his patriotism 
and liberalit}^ He then offered his services to 
the government in any capacity where they 
could become useful or important, and from that 



23 

time forward abandoned liis private affiiirs to the 
care of his agents, and devoted his entire energies 
to his country. As a volunteer Aid to General 
McDowell, he engaged in the first battle of Bull 
Run, and by his courage and energy, retrieved 
much of the disaster of that ill-fated en2;aa;ement. 
In July, 18(31, appointed a Brigadier General, he 
was assigned to a command in the army of the 
Potomac. In the succeeding month of March, he 
was ordered to Washington, as Military Governor 
of the city, and for nine months discharged with 
distinguished ability the duties of that difficult 
and important post. In December, 1862, at his 
own request, he was ordered to the field. He 
reported to Major General Beynolds, commanding 
the First Corps, and was assigned by that distin- 
guished officer to the command of his First Divi- 
sion, and afterwards led that division in the bat- 
tles of Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville. At 
the battle of Gettysburg his w^as the first division 
engaged, going into action at nine o'clock in the 
morning, and fighting until four in the afternoon, 

• 

encountering the severest part of the action, and 
suffering the heaviest loss of any portion of the 
army. Our troops winning the battle, and rout- 
ing the enemy from the field, General Wads- 



24: 

WORTH, compreliending the vast consequences de- 
pending on the immediate subjugation or capture 
of the rebel forces, urged the commanding Gene- 
ral, Meade, to their pursuit. But in vain. Other 
and more timid counsels prevailed, and that 
invading host of rebels was suffered to escape 
with the mild punishment of a simple defeat. 
The daring courage and stern energy of General 
Wadsavorth, on this decisive field, p)lficed him, in 
all the high qualities of a soldier, second to no 
other general officer in the army. 

Nor was he, of his family, alone in his devotion 
to the public service. Two sons followed him 
into the army. The elder one, Charles, was 
attached to the Department of the Gulf — served 
as captain under General Banks, and participated 
in the attack on Port Hudson. With a year of 
active service, at the call of imperative duties at 
home, he resigned his command. The younger 
son, Craig, was attached to General Wadsworth's 
staft' for a time, and afterwards held responsible 
and hazardous positions with other general officers 
in various departments, until May last, when 
important domestic duties called him home. The 
son-in-law of General Wadswortii, Capt. Ritchie, 
also joined the army early in the war. He was 



25 

engaged in General Burnside's first expedition, 
afterwards served in the several battles at Port 
Hudson, and continued in active service until 
the melancholy event of the Wilderness compel- 
led his resignation. If, in the annals of time, an 
instance of higher patriotism and intenser devo- 
tion to the honor of their country has been shown 
by a father and three sons, possessing millions of 
wealth, and beckoned by all the allurements 
of ease and luxury from personal danger, that 
instance has yet to be written; and would that 
the narrative of hard fought battles and bloody 
sacrifice would stop here. 

General Wadsworth took an active part in the 
arrangements and preparations of the campaign 
of General Grant in the spring of 1864 against 
the rebel army in Virginia. His judgment in 
council and energy in action had placed him 
in such estimation with the military authorities, 
that, at the outset of the campaign, he was 
charged with a leading command. A decisive 
work was before the army of the Potomac. The 
country had become impatient of delay in its 
long anticipated advance, and anxiously expect- 
ant of better results than had, in the past, marked 
its checkered fortunes. This feeling was known 
4 



26 

to no one better than to AVadsavorth. He re- 
sponded to it with all the fervor of his unfalter- 
ing nature, and with a determination, on his own 
part, that it should not be disappointed. The 
incidents attending the opening of the campaign 
and its first brtttle of the Wilderness, so melan- 
choly in its results, are of such interest that I 
shall be excused for laying some of them before 
you, which I obtained from Captain Craig W. 
Wadsworth, a son of the General, who was in a 
part of the battle : 

"When the army of the Potomac was re- 
organized last spring, my father was placed in 
command of the fourth division, fifth corps. This 
division was made up of his old division of the 
first corps, with the addition of another, the third 
brigade. He crossed the Rapidan on the 4th of 
May. On the evening of the 5tli his command 
was engaged for several hours, and lost heavily. 
On the morning of the 6th he was ordered to 
report to General Hancock, commanding the 
second corps, and by him was ordered into action 
on the right of that corps. My father made seve- 
ral charges with his division, and finally carried 
quite an imjDortant position, but was unable to 
hold it, the enemy coming down in superior num- 



27 

bers. This was about eight o'clock a. m., the 
fighting having commenced, at daylight. About 
this time General Hancock sent for my father, 
and told him he had ordered three brigades, 
Generals Ward's, Webb's, and one from General 
Burnside's corps, to report to him, and he wished 
him, if possible, with the six brigades under his 
command, to carry a certain position. Three or 
four assaults were made withouj: success, the 
fighting being terrific. My father had two horses 
killed under him. General Hancock then sent 
word to my father not to make any further 
attempts to dislodge the enemy at present. This 
was about eleven o'clock a. m. The enemy did 
not show any further disposition to attack. It 
Avas Hill's corps which my father had been 
fighting. Everything remained quiet until about 
twelve o'clock, when Longstreet precipitated his 
corps on my father's left, and hurled back Ward's 
brigade at that point, in some confusion. My 
father, seeing this, immediately threw his second 
line, composed of his own division, forward, and 
formed it on the plank road, at right angles to 
his original line, the ditch at the side of the road 
affording his men some protection. It was in 
trying to hold this line, with his own gallant 



28 

division, then reduced to about sixteen hundred 
men, that he felL His third horse was killed 
that morning, about the time he was wounded. 
The enemy was charging at the time, and got 
possession of the ground before my father could 
be removed. He was carried back to one of the 
rebel hospitals that Friday afternoon, and lived 
until Sunday morning." 

To illustrate somewhat the carnage of war and 
its uncertainties, I may relate the whereabouts of 
the son. Captain Craig Wadswortii, at " The 
Wilderness " battle : " During the 5th and Gth of 
May, the division of cavalry to which I was 
attached, was guarding the wagon train. On the 
morning of the Gth, I obtained permission from 
my General, Torbert, to go up to the front, and 
remain two or three hours with my father. I 
reached him between eight and nine o'clock, and 
remained with him until he received the order 
from General Hancock not to make any further 
attempt to dislodge the enemy. I got word about 
this time that General Torbert was moving, so I 
rejoined my command. We started out with 
General Sheridan on his raid, the next morning, 
and I never knew positively of my father's death 
until we reached the White House." 



29 

This narrative will scarcely be complete with- 
out the letter of Patrick McCracken, to the 
widow of General Wadsworth, a copy of which 
has been kindly furnished me. It reads as fol- 
lows : 

Spotsylvania Court House, Va., ? 
May 9th, 18G4. 5 
Mrs. General Wadsworth, JVew York : 

Dear jNIadam — You have heard, before this reaches you, of the 
death of your brave husband. General Wadsworth. I saw him in 
the hospital, near the battle-field, on Saturday last, about ten o'clock ; 
he could not speak or take any notice to anything; he held a paper in 
his hand with his name and address written on it ; he was surrounded 
with the most eminent surgeons in the Confederacy, who done every- 
thing for him that could be done ; one of them took the paper out of 
his hand, and when he laid the paper back against his hand, he 
oijened his hand and took it back again ; he did not seem to suffer 
much, the ball had entered the top, or rather the back of his head. I 
saw him again on Sunday, about nine o'clock. I had carried some 
sweet milk to the hospital, and wet his lips several times, and let a 
little go down his mouth. But when the surgeon raised him up, he 
could not get him to let any go down. When I returned to the hos- 
pital, about three o'clock, he was dead and in a box ready for inter- 
ment. I told the surgeon in charge that I was a prisoner nine weeks 
in the Old Capitol, while the General was Military Governor of Wash- 
ington, and that I would have a coffin made for him, and bury him in 
a family burying ground; he cheerfully consented. After much 
trouble, I had a coffin made for him, as good as any could be made in 
the countrJ^ When I went for his remains with the coffin, General 
Lee had given special orders, (not knowing I was going to take 
charge of his remains,) that he should be buried by a large tree, the 
tree to be cut low, and his name marked on it. I had given the sur- 
geon satisfactory evidence that I would take care of the body, and 
with the advice of Captain Z. B. Adams, Co. F, 56th Mass. Regt., 
they gave me the body. I removed it from the box to the coffin, and 
brought it home last night, and buried it this morning in the family 
burying ground at my house; he is buried with all his clothing, as he 
fell on the battle-field. The grave is dug with a vault or chamber, 
the coffin covered with plank, and then dirt. When arrangements 
are made by our government for his removal, I will take pleasure in 
having him moved through our lines to his friends. I live about a 
mile to the left of the plank road, as you go from Fredericksburg to 
Orange Court House, near New Hope Meeting House, on the plank 
road, twenty miles from Fredericksburg and eighteen from Orange 
Court House. 

I had a large plank planed and marked for a headstone, and placed 
it at the head of the grave. He received all the attention and kind- 



30 

ness fit the liands of the Confederate authorities that could be be- 
stow^ed upon hiin,^%s will be attested by Captain Z. B. Adams, Co. F, 
5Gth Mass. lieginient. 

AVith great.^esjTe'ct, I remain yours, 

PATRICK McCRACKEN. 

Thus, on the soil of his country's foe, far from 
the soothing hand of sympathy, or the loved 
embraces of those he held most dear — his brain 
shattered — his mind unconscious, but a glorious 
memory awaiting him — died, and was temporarily 
buried, this noble, generous soldier. Though 
slain upon a distant battle-field, his remains now 
rest in the burial ground of his native village. 
The hand of filial affection rescued them from a 
profixned grave. They were tenderly removed, 
and, under the escort of a detachment of Invalid 
Corps, from Washington, arrived at Geneseo on 
the morning of the 21st of May, after a lapse 
of fifteen days from the time he fell, and were 
deposited within the walls, and amid the heart- 
stricken circle of his now desolated home. A 
multitude from the surrounding and even distant 
country, had come to meet the arrival of the 
Dead Soldier, and pay their last tribute of respect 
at his grave. His burial was simple, as was fit- 
ting to his grand and simple life. In the after- 
noon of the day, the remains were removed to 
the Episcopal church of the village. The solemn 



31 

ritual of his own Christian faith was said, and 
then, preceded by a veteran corps of the 21st 
Volunteer Regiment, from Buffalo — one of the 
earliest which entered the war, and himself had 
led to battle — and followed by a great concourse 
of those who had long loyed, and now mourned 
him, his body was borne to its final rest. 

" And there he sleeps till at the Trump Divine, 
The Earth and Ocean render up their dead." 

It may apj)ear superfluous to speak further of 
General Wadsworth, or to delineate his character 
to those who knew him so well as you; but to 
those who did not know him — and his fame is the 
property of his country — it is but just to S23eak of 
him as he deserved. An allusion might be made 
to the more matured policy and opinions which 
influenced him, beyond mere impulse, to enter 
into the military service of his country ; but this 
is not the time, nor is it the j)lace, for such allu- 
sion. The graver and more deliberate pen of his- 
tory Avill do justice to both, when it shall write 
the full measure of his intentions and contem- 
plated action, had his life been spared to disclose 
them. That they were wise and beneficent, as 
they were entirely unselfish — reaching far be- 
yond any aspiration to mere military fame or 



32 

the applause accorded to temporary success — is 
known to those who were intimate with his 
thoughts. 

To a friend who carelessly asked him one day, 
why, with so much to care for at home, he sought 
the hazards of the battle-field, he nobly replied, 
that " they who had the most at stake should not 
shrink from the heaviest risks for their country's 
safety !" 

He was not ambitious of political distinction, 
as shown by his declining the office of Governor 
of the State, some years ago, when his simple 
assent to the wishes of his party friends, then in 
a powerful majority, would have elected him. 
Nor did he aspire to high military command. At 
the breaking out of the rebellion, he magnani- 
mously urged upon the President of the United 

States the appointment of General Dix to the 

f 
office of Major General, on account of his greater 

military experience and fitness, although a poli- 
tical opponent, when they had both been named 
by the Executive of New York for that position, 
and under the rule of the War Department, at 
Washington, but one of them could be accepted. 
He did, indeed, discharge one civil deliberative 
trust, but that scarce a legally official one. He 



33 

attended, with severcal other delegates from the 
State of New York, in February, 1861, the so- 
called " Peace Co;igress," at Washington, in an 
effort to adjust the sectional difficulties between 
the Free and Slave States, just preceding the 
rebellion. But with the chronic traitors of the 
South, in that body, he could have no affiliations. 
He could yield no rights which he knew the Free 
States to possess under the Constitution; nor 
would he admit the arrogant pretensions of the 
South to privileges for slavery which the Consti- 
tution had not given them. No one sustained the 
integrity and honor of the Northern States with 
more firmness or decision than Wadsworth ; and, 
after exhausting all honorable efforts on the part 
of the Northern delegates in composing, without 
success, their differences, the congress adjourned, 
and he, with his associates, withdrew to their 
several homes. He had also previously, in the 
year 1856, discharged the duty of a Presidential 
Elector for the State at large ; and again, in 1860, 
that of an Elector for his own congressional dis- 
trict, to which offices he was severally elected by 
the people. 

To an intimate friend of General Wadsworth, 
(the Hon. Daniel H. Fitzhugh, of Geneseo,) I am 
5 



34 

indebted for some relations of his private life 
which I have given jou, and in addition I repeat 
some of his words: 

" I have known General Wadsworth since he 
was a boy of ten years old, and his early years 
gave promise of what his manhood would be. 
Although never quarrelsome, he was always 
ready to resent insult, or resist oj^pression. His 
friendships were fixed and unwavering, and to 
serve a friend, he would risk to any extent either 
person or property. His domestic relations were 
most happy. A more kind, indulgent, or affec- 
tionate husband and father, I have never known. 
His hospitality was unbounded, and as a host, I 
have met with few who possessed so happy a 
faculty of entertaining their guests ; his conversa- 
tion always animated, amusing and instructive. 
He lived a truly Christian life, although not a 
professor of religion. He loved his fellow-men, 
and was always foremost when any charity was 
to be dispensed, or any project was on foot for 
enlightening, elevating, or benefiting, in any 
way, the human family. He was liberal to his 
tenants, in the abatement of rents, when their 
crops had been destroyed, or injured by insects, 
floods or droughts. Brave to rashness, he was 



35 

generous, liberal, humane. Highly intelligent 
and well educated, he possessed all the qualities 
which make men good and great. In short, I 
have seldom known an instance where so many 
high qualities have been combined in one indivi- 
dual, and would to God we had more like him in 
this trying crisis of our country !" 

Such is the testimony of one who knew him for 
nearly fifty years. In a personal acquaintance 
with General Wadswortii for more than thirty 
years, I have seldom or never known one for 
whom I had a greater respect. You all knew 
his athletic person, his cheerful look, his wel- 
come greeting — and, if I may sjoeak of so small 
a thing, his plainness of dress, the absence of 
bodily decoration, and utter disregard of personal 
trifles — yet always mindful of conventional ipro- 
prieties ; there was no nonsense about him. His 
bearing was manly, his words sincere, his senti- 
ments outspoken. He was direct and cordial in 
manner, genial in his associations, affable to all 
with whom he had intercourse, irrespective of 
rank, or condition in life, yet decided in opinion, 
and frank in its expression. If any quality of 
his mind stood out conspicuously, it was that of a 
vigorous common sense, coupled with a ready 



36 

judgment, apj)lied to all matters which arrested 
his attention. This was manifested in various 
23ublic questions which agitated the community, 
as well as in the management of the large estates, 
both real and personal, under his control, not 
only to the benefit of the estates themselves, but 
to the welfxre of the communities with which 
they were connected. In all his business rela- 
tions, I have never heard of an act of injustice or 
oppression at his hands. On the other hand, I 
knew him to pay an obligation of more than 
twenty thousand dollars which he had unwarily 
incurred, to assist a friend, and afterwards be- 
came void by its own tenor. It was uncollect- 
able, and he knew it ; and the party to whom it 
was given — a rich man — would be no real suf- 
ferer by its non-payment. But Mr. Wadsworth, 
declining to avail himself of the illegality, or 
incur an imputation on his honor, joaid the 
amount and submitted to the loss. 

His faithfulness to the duties of any kind 
which he had undertaken, was a striking feature 
of his character. In the three years of his con- 
nection with the war, he did not altogether spend 
eight weeks of time at his family home. His 
soul was in his country's service. Nor was his 



o/ 



attention alone absorbed, in the simple official 
duties of the Commander. In camj), he was 
among his soldiers, in tent or in hospital, looking 
after their wants, ministering to their comfort, 
promoting their welfare, and correcting abuses 
where they existed — thus adding to the efficiency 
of his corps by every exercise of humanity, as 
well as by the sterner demands of the field. No 
General was ever more beloved by his troops 
than he. 

Those who recollect the Irish dearth, of the 
year 1847, when the famished cry of millions of 
down-trodden sufferers reached America, will not 
forget the merciful bounty with which he con- 
tributed to freight a ship with corn, and gratui- • 
tously sent it out for distribution to the hunger- 
stricken people. Nor was he vaunting in his 
charities, timely and liberal as they were. It 
was characteristic of his benevolence to do o'ood 
by stealth, rather than to be seen of men. He 
demeaned himself as one of the great human 
brotherhood, and I might even speak of his ex- 
pression of indignant commiseration over the 
victims of a boasted " domestic institution," as in 
their crouching helplessness, side by side, he and 
myself, some years ago, stood over them at a 



38 

human chattel market in one of the " chivah^ous" 
Southern States. He had little respect for wealth, 
simply, or the hoarded gains of those who were 
altogether absorbed in its accumulation ; and he 
respected just as little mere moneygetters. Man- 
hood, character, liberality, and patriotic impulse, 
accompanied with their wealth — or those quali- 
ties without it — were the passports to his con- 
fidence and esteem. 

His tastes were elevated and liberal. He 
esteemed his wealth less for his own pleasure, 
than for the benefit and happiness of others. He 
indulged in no idle display ^of luxury, yet the 
elegancies of life and the adornments of art found 
• in him an appreciating admirer and patron. He 
promoted education and literature by frequent 
sifts, and left eisrht thousand dollars to erect a 
building for a town library and museum in Gene- 
seo. His ruling taste Avas for rich lands, and 
their development to the prosperity and wealth 
of the country. He loved the soil in all its 
breadth of vegetable or mineral production. He 
loved to talk of agriculture, and its advance- 
ment — of crops, and their improved modes of 
cultivation — of horses and of cattle. He loved 
the broad landscapes of his native valley, the 



39 

grand old trees in his ancestral meadows, and 
every natural and artificial thing which beauti- 
fied the earth, and ministered to the benefit of 
man. « 

In remarking upon the wealth of General 
Wadsworth, it may j^ossibly be inferred that 
undue merit has been given him for the accident 
of its possession. Not so. It was not because he 
had wealth, but because he knew how to use his 
wealth, that I speak of him in terms of approba- 
tion. I strive to measure him the man he was. 
In this age of lax education, irregular habits, and 
impulsive action — an age in which money is the 
God of most men's adoration — he had wealth 
enough to spoil twenty common men, and it was 
a rare merit in him that with all the tempting 
opportunities at his hand, he withstood their 
fascinations. The wonder is that he was not a 
profligate, or — a miser. 

But the last great labor of his life — his devo- 
tion to a country which he loved beyond all else — 
proved the virtue that was in him. Possessed of 
all that could render life enjoyable — friends, 
fortune, domestic love, and the consciousness of 
duty well discharged — he abandoned them all at 
the coming of his country's danger, went forth 



40 

to its rescue — and, if might be, to die for its 
deliverance. He could equally well, as men would 
say, have served his country in contributing of 
his treasure to its necessities, instead of leading 
its soldiers to battle, and his valuable life been 
spared to his family, to the community and to 
the State. But such was not his own sense of 
duty, and his blood has paid the sacrifice of his 
devotion. In his death we, as a Society, mourn 
a friend and associate ; the community in which 
he lived, a useful citizen ; the State, an enlight- 
ened patriot; the army, a heroic soldier; and the 
nation a man worthy of its noblest honors. A 
life of active duty, crowned with achievements 
of loftiest intent, has written him high in the roll 
of illustrious men — the peer of an}' other in the 
annals of his time. Sleep ! hero — patriot — bene- 
factor ! Peacefully sleep in your honored grave ! 
And may that Almighty Power, who holds the 
destiny of nations in His hand, lift your beloved 
country from its present calamity, and redeemed 
from all servile oppression and bloodguiltiness, 
establish it a monument of righteousness to the 
world ! 



41 

On the conclusion of the memorial, the Honor- 
able Ex-Gov. John A. King (ex-president of the 
Society), offered the following resolution : 

Resolved, As the sense of the members of the 
Society, that the death of our lamented associate 
and friend, James S. Wadswortii, fills our hearts 
with unfeigned regret and sorrow — that his ab- 
sence from our deliberations and exhibitions is 
felt and acknowledged by all who knew his worth 
and intelligence. He was no common man. Libe- 
rally educated, with a sound, firm and discrimi- 
nating mind; inheriting the broad lands of an 
honored father, the cultivation and management 
of which was his delight and occupation, he stood 
forth a noble example of an American citizen in 
all his relations. Foremost in the cultivation of 
the arts of peace, he gave his life in the defence 
of the Union and the Constitution of his country, 
when rebel hands were raised against them. 
Honored, therefore, be the memory of such a 
man, whose life and death were alike distin- 
guished and glorious, and w^iose name must ever 
be a household w^ord among the free homes of his 
native State. 

The resolution was unanimously adopted. 

6 



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